Life
1758-1828, b. Cashel; ordained Rome; DD, Univ. of Pavia; taught at Pavia
before returning to Ireland at fall of Milan to Napoleon, 1796; barred
from Maynooth post on being suspected of Jansenism by the Bishop of Cork
[RAF, had to resign]; asst. librarian RDS, 1799, and later foreign sec.
to same; librarian RDS, 1808 and fnd Gaelic Soc. with Edward O’Reilly
in 1808; his Ecclesiastical History of Ireland from the first introduction
of Christianity to the beginning of the 13th century ([4 vols] 1822),
sets out to correct errors in Mervyn Archdall’s Monasticum Hibernicum
though without consulting the Book of Armagh (Codex Armanachus);
argued that St. Patrick was born in Boulogne (‘Taberniae’ being
Tarvenna of Roman political geography); d. 7 July in Dr Harty’s private
mental asylum, Clontarf; W. J. Fitzpatrick derived much of the biographical
lore in History of Dublin Catholic Cemeteries (1900) and other
works from Lanigan. CAB DNB DIB DIW RAF OCIL.
Works
An Ecclesiastical History of Ireland from the first introduction of Christianity
among the Irish to the beginning of the 13th century [...]
compiled from the works of the most esteemed authors [...] and
from Irish Annals, 4 vols. (Dublin: Cumming 1822).
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Notes
Dictionary of National Biography, and publ. first part of his Institutiones
Biblicae (Padua 1793); returned to Ireland, 1796, and became asst.-lib
RDS, 1799; assisted to found Gaelic Society of Dublin, 1808; An Ecclesiastical
History of Ireland &c. (1822). Note that his insanity is not mentioned.
Henry Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography [rev. edn.] (Gill & Macmillan 1988), University of Pavia; suspected of Jansenism by bishop of Cork, preventing proposed appointment to chair of Hebrew and Sacred Scripture; ed. and translator on RDS staff adn £1.50 p.w., raised to £3 on advancement to librarian in 1808; incapacitated by mental illness in 1813. NOTE however that Fitzgerald’s life of Dr Lanigan is about the RC bishop of Ossory, James Lanigan [supra].
An Ecclesiastical History of Ireland [&c.], 4 vols. (1822) £55 [Hyland 214]. CATL, An Ecclesiastical History of Ireland from the first introduction of Christianity among the Irish to the beginning of the thirteenth century. With list of subscribers. Four volumes. Dublin, Cumming, 1829 [sic]. Cont. half calf on marbled boards with red and black labels; attractive set bound by D.W. Carroll of Dublin, with his ticket on the front pastedown [£275; De Burca 1997]. MORRIS holds An Ecclestical History of Ireland ... to the thirteenth century, 4 vols. (1822).
Dalton points out Dr. Lanigan who was opposed to the theory of a pre-Scandanavian
prelacy in Dublin felt well-nigh insuperable difficulty in excluding Sedulius
[d.785] from this rank and title. Dr Lanigan’s uneasiness must have
increased if he realised that, giving way on this point, it would have
been difficult to maintain his view regarding the others. Dr Lanigan’s
difficulty (and that of some later writers) seems to have arisen from
his effort to interpret an early form of Church government in terms that
obtained at a much later period [viz., diocesan, not king-monastic]. [Little, Dublin Before the Vikings, 1957, p.100-101]
Rev. William Bullen Morris, Ireland and St. Patrick (London & NY: Burns and Oates; Dublin M. H. Gill & Son, 1891), cites Lanigan’s article, ‘Northmen and Normans in England and Ireland’ (1856), printed in Essays in Church History, p.46, and comments: ‘Dr. Lanigan’s account of the state of Ireland previous to the irruption of the Normans is fair and dispassionate ... When, however, he reaches the perod of Pope Adrian, it is clear that he is blinded by that indignation which sometimes disturbs the wisest mind ... Dr. Lanigan is so angry with the Pope that he dismisses with contempt every argument in his favour, and in answer to Cambrensis Eversus, and MacGeoghegan, he rashly affirmes of the "Bull", that "never did there exist a more real and authentic document.’ [Eccles. Hist., vol. iv, pp.32, 34, 43, 55, &c.]; Note that Morris’s viewpoint is that the Bull is a forgery whose ‘almost every line the letter reveals the swordsman - the self-appointed military missioner’ (i.e., Henry II).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)